Eva Hnizdo's Blog

Recent medical problems snowed me more of the healthcare from the patient's side.
I am a retired GP, and I was always aware of the power I had to make people miserable.
I tried to have that power in check.
So, the recent experience of waiting 14 hours for an ambulance, of a specialist telling me 14 years ago, "Yes, this is Parkinson's, come back in 6 months when it is worse." NOT IF < WHEN; ;;
The hospital nurses not giving me my Parkinson's medication, a carer putting in her notes that I probably consumed some alcohol, (a British TV personality who has Parkinson's also had a t-shirt made " I'm not pi...., I’ve got Parkinson's...")

SO, I DECIDED TO STEERT A BOOK. FICTION.
The main character will be a health professional who gets ill with an annoying but not terminal illness, and her change of situation puts her to the other camp. The patients.
It was probably written before. But maybe I will add a new view. I'm planning to make the book a bit funny. Not very funny, just a bit...
Watch this space.

I always had a special relationship to the old Jewish cemetery in Prague as a young student, I used to go there and read, sit on one of the benches, and there was nobody there. It felt like my private island in the middle of Prague.

I emigrated from communist Czechoslovakia to the West in 1986, however, the communist regime fell in 1989, and we could travel back. We first came to Prague in 1992. and we took our English friends with us. We recommended them the Jewish cemetery and we were surprised that they were not very impressed by it. I understood when I went on my own and I had to walk slowly behind many tourists through a now full cemetery. It lost its magic.

Then, in the Covid lockdown in 2019, I got stuck in Prague for several months.  I went to the Jewish cemetery and also to the Charles Bridge and they were both like any other places in Prague, normally full of tourists, empty. It was wonderful. But of course, tourism is good for the country, and I understand that it’s encouraged. It’s a problem. I’m a tourist very often too, so I shouldn’t be hypocritical about this.

My family has a grave at the 19th century New Jewish cemetery, close to the other large cemetery Olsany. It is an interesting, melancholy place. Full of graves that nobody ever visits because everybody who could have visited vanished in the Holocaust. Sad. Plates like This is in honour and memory of my mother and twenty other relatives who didn’t make the end of the war. There are many empty or half empty graves. Even on our family grave, there are sometimes just names of relatives who “Didn’t come back “as my family used to say. And sometimes nobody knew when exactly they died, so there is their name, date of birth and year of death.

It is pretty powerful.

 When I had the writing on our family tomb renovated, I changed the colour depending on whether they were just the names of the Holocaust victims or people who were actually buried there. Only the people with the inscriptions in gold are buried here. Nobody knows where the other ones ended. My mother’s name is the last so far.Her Brother Mirko Nettl and her Father Benno Nettl were killed by the Nazis.

This is a grave of close relatives whom I never met.

My mother always used to go to the cemetery at the All-Saints Day like most of Czech people. Of course, she didn’t celebrate All Saints Day. But she didn’t celebrate Jewish holidays either. A typical Prague Christmas celebrating, pork eating Jew, she didn’t really believe in anything. Once she was very cross when she went to the cemetery on Friday, and it was closed. “Mom, it’s Sabbath, and it is a Jewish cemetery, of course it is closed.”” What a nonsense,” she said.

In my family, mixed marriages were common even in the beginning of the 20th century. My Grandfather Benno had five siblings, only three of them had Jewish spouses. One of them married a German, one a Dutchwoman, and one a Czech Roman Catholic. Nobody cared. When my uncle Oscar came to ask for his future wife’s hand in marriage, his future father-in-law in Holland was talking about how important the Protestant religion was in the family.

 My uncle Oscar got a bit insecure and said: “I don’t know whether you realise it, Sir, but I’m a Jew.”

 “As long as you’re not a Catholic.” was the answer.

When my 89-year-old mother fell down the stairs in her weekend house and died, it was quite complicated to arrange a quick funeral at distance from England.

It was all sorted very efficiently by a man called Chaim Kočí, who arranged everything.

The funeral was quite exotic. Men in Jewish orthodox clothing carried the coffin and sang something in Aramaic, which we of course did not understand. Mr Kočí wanted my sons to say kaddish, but they were reluctant because they didn’t speak Hebrew, and they wouldn’t be able to read it.

Kočí showed me the English phonetic transcription and I read it. Nobody ever read it so beautifully, said Mr Koci.

Pity I am a woman.” I said. We both laughed.

One day when I die, I would like to be buried in this grave too. I feel a bit sorry for my sons who would have to arrange the transport of the urn with my ashes from England, but maybe Mr Kočí will help them. Maybe even with the kaddish…

https://evahnizdowriter.com/2024/04/0...

It is a phase that will hopefully go. Time just flies , wasted, Following the same news , looking at opinions on you tube, even though I don’t need this to understand what is happening. News, Facebook, they can be addictive.

I do read and write , but less than |I would like to.

I buy books, and they are sitting on my shelves waiting to be read. My bookcases are perfectly organised, in alphabetical order, and divided into language groups. I read in Czech, Slovak, German ,English. I also have some French books that I haven’t read yet. They will probably be the last ones I read , if I live that long.

This is very unusual for me. I am having a reading and writing crisis.

Does anybody have any tips on how to get out of this?

Hmmm, a lot of my friends would tell you I read too much, following fictional character's lives instead of living mine. I think I used to be a bit like that when I was young. Then I lived more. One of my German friends once had a bit of an explosion after showing me around his town and listening to my chatter for 4 days. He's had enough. "I can't bear listening toe you finding comparison of everything to something you read about. It makes e feel inadequate." He is a nice, clever and kind man, and usually very tolerant.
I told him he had a point and apologised. I also told him one of my favourite definitions of an intellectual. " He/she reads about things other people do naturally.
And what is worst is Goodreads don't have the entire picture. I don't put all books I read on. When I was a child, the sentence Nečti si pořád " Don't read all the time" was something I hard almost every day. Maybe all those people are right.

The Fish That Climbed a Tree by Kevin Ansbro

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Magical, romantic funny and sad, with a Paradise I wish existed.

This is different to any book I’ve read which is always a good sign. I loved the combination of reality and the interesting characters, even the villains Yuri and Pascal are not simple, undoubtably bad, but not cartoonish (even Pascal, and NOT to make him cartoonish must have been difficult). Their fate is fascinating, but I don’t want to put in spoilers.¬ This will also stop me talking too much about the plot, the twists, the combination of scenes from contemporary England and Paradise, occasionally jumping to Ukraine or Africa. People who are alive and who are dead. Fascinating characters, those wonderful old men, one a literary agent- lucky for young Henry, an aspiring author, another a writer, in the chapter called “An Englishman ,an Irishman, an Indian and a Jew Go into a bar”, and no, t is not a racist joke.
I don’t believe in anything, a complete agnostic, but I would love to be proven wrong and wake up after death in this novel’s Paradise, with the inhabitants teleporting, and conversing in all languages. I loved the details. They hear their own language, but it looks a bit like films which are dubbed because the mouth movements are different. I loved the idea that people can pick up their age, so the daughter who chose to stay her real age of forty meets her father who decided to be twenty. Most of them make themselves younger, but not everybody. The original interview with an archangel determines everything. The absence of God in this Paradise, and of course choice of the archangels like Voltaire or Darwin made me smile .. Wouldn’t it be amazing to meet your hero as your archangel? I imagined being interviewed by Oscar Wilde, Josephus Flavius, or John Steinbeck…
This is definitely magic realism, but different to Saalman Rushdie, Gabriel Marquez or the others. I googled archangels, and I realised they are a rather low order in the angelic hierarchy. The top position of archangels in Milton’s Paradise is apparently wrong.

I liked the humour in the book where the author is playfully making fun of himself One of the old men in the pub, a writer, Mr O’Connor was criticised for use of unnecessarily flowery words when he first started writing.
This is the line from the book:
“Ha! Everyone’s a critic. She’s right, of course. Hey, show me a writer who isn’t sometimes guilty of literary overkill. This is where a good copy editor is worth their weight in gold. In my first novel, when I didn’t yet know my arse from my elbow, I used the word ‘pulchritudinous’ to describe a beautiful woman. Sweet Jesus, how pretentious!”
I think Kevin Ansbro sometimes writes in a style only an intellectual can understand.
But then, maybe not. I understand those words, and I am a foreigner, English being my 5th language in a historical sense.
His language is rich, poetic, and yet there is a fast pace to the story. And of course, the wonderfully ridiculous, albeit immoral and appalling character Sebastian, using pretentious expressions which would be enough if he didn’t use the wrong words – the choice of his alternative words is brilliant. I only remembered insoluble, (he meant he was broke- always) no money- insolvent or mentioning “George du Maurier’s Bengali rather than Svengali. Kevin Ansbro’s language is complicated and very intellectual, but never pretentious.
The book is sometimes surprisingly romantic but not too sweet. The sex scenes are not explicit, but they contain humorous elements and clearly convey intense passion.
When something wonderful ends, we always feel disappointed. Reading this book left me wanting for more. There are so many possibilities in this book, and so many branches one could follow. I am a terrible digresser. And greedily I want more. But that is probably the best recommendation for this book. The readers will want to come for more.



View all my reviews

The Fish That Climbed a Tree by Kevin Ansbro

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Magical, romantic funny and sad, with a Paradise I wish existed.

This is different to any book I’ve read which is always a good sign. I loved the combination of reality and the interesting characters, even the villains Yuri and Pascal are not simple, undoubtably bad, but not cartoonish (even Pascal, and NOT to make him cartoonish must have been difficult). Their fate is fascinating, but I don’t want to put in spoilers.¬ This will also stop me talking too much about the plot, the twists, the combination of scenes from contemporary England and Paradise, occasionally jumping to Ukraine or Africa. People who are alive and who are dead. Fascinating characters, those wonderful old men, one a literary agent- lucky for young Henry, an aspiring author, another a writer, in the chapter called “An Englishman ,an Irishman, an Indian and a Jew Go into a bar”, and no, t is not a racist joke.
I don’t believe in anything, a complete agnostic, but I would love to be proven wrong and wake up after death in this novel’s Paradise, with the inhabitants teleporting, and conversing in all languages. I loved the details. They hear their own language, but it looks a bit like films which are dubbed because the mouth movements are different. I loved the idea that people can pick up their age, so the daughter who chose to stay her real age of forty meets her father who decided to be twenty. Most of them make themselves younger, but not everybody. The original interview with an archangel determines everything. The absence of God in this Paradise, and of course choice of the archangels like Voltaire or Darwin made me smile .. Wouldn’t it be amazing to meet your hero as your archangel? I imagined being interviewed by Oscar Wilde, Josephus Flavius, or John Steinbeck…
This is definitely magic realism, but different to Saalman Rushdie, Gabriel Marquez or the others. I googled archangels, and I realised they are a rather low order in the angelic hierarchy. The top position of archangels in Milton’s Paradise is apparently wrong.

I liked the humour in the book where the author is playfully making fun of himself One of the old men in the pub, a writer, Mr O’Connor was criticised for use of unnecessarily flowery words when he first started writing.
This is the line from the book:
“Ha! Everyone’s a critic. She’s right, of course. Hey, show me a writer who isn’t sometimes guilty of literary overkill. This is where a good copy editor is worth their weight in gold. In my first novel, when I didn’t yet know my arse from my elbow, I used the word ‘pulchritudinous’ to describe a beautiful woman. Sweet Jesus, how pretentious!”
I think Kevin Ansbro sometimes writes in a style only an intellectual can understand.
But then, maybe not. I understand those words, and I am a foreigner, English being my 5th language in a historical sense.
His language is rich, poetic, and yet there is a fast pace to the story. And of course, the wonderfully ridiculous, albeit immoral and appalling character Sebastian, using pretentious expressions which would be enough if he didn’t use the wrong words – the choice of his alternative words is brilliant. I only remembered insoluble, (he meant he was broke- always) no money- insolvent or mentioning “George du Maurier’s Bengali rather than Svengali. Kevin Ansbro’s language is complicated and very intellectual, but never pretentious.
The book is sometimes surprisingly romantic but not too sweet. The sex scenes are not explicit, but they contain humorous elements and clearly convey intense passion.
When something wonderful ends, we always feel disappointed. Reading this book left me wanting for more. There are so many possibilities in this book, and so many branches one could follow. I am a terrible digresser. And greedily I want more. But that is probably the best recommendation for this book. The readers will want to come for more.



View all my reviews

This is the best way of buying my paperback now, Amazon is still the only way for an e-book.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225903562181

amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Didnt-They-Leave-Hnizdo-ebook/dp/B0CKHXV3J8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BYXYK6S313IN&keywords=eva+hnizdo&qid=1701853816&s=digital-text&sprefix=eva+hnizdo%2Cdigital-text%2C70&sr=1-1

I collected my novel’s reviews. Most of them are very kind. But then, I’m not famous, and only people who like that sort of books read mine.

You can find those reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but I copied them for you.

There were some articles written about my book, and I gave some interviews, but I don’t have those.

So, the reviews will follow lower down.

Writing this blog reminded me of my family. My mother , liberasted from the camp age 18. Photo of my parents wedding 2 years later.

Terezin:

The Stolpersteine I had installed in front of the house where the family lived before they were deported.

Our family grave in the New Jewish Cemetary in Prague. The people whose names are in black are not burried there, nobody knows where their bodies ended.

This is another family grave. In memoriam,none of these came back. That is what my ,mother and grandmother used to say about the ones who vanished in the camps. He/she didn’t come back”

Back to my reviews, The book is fiction, inspired by my family stories.

But I am going to do something unusual. I will post the worst reviews first.

Why? Because in a way, the review informs me that the character of Magda was well written. The person who wrote the review hated Magda with a passion normally not felt for fictional characters. So, in my mind, this horrible review is 5 stars Plus. And it made me smile.

Of course, I love those intelligent, thoughtful wonderful reviews other people wrote. And a negative constructive review helps, more than praise.

But reading this one was kind of fun.

This is just part of my 3-star review.

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2021

This is just a small part of the review; you can read he whole review lower down. I am a devious woman, so by doing this, you might read all the reviews, the good ones.

I HATED the characters, mainly Magda. Magda was awful. She was a terrible mother. I hated the way she talked to her daughter. Magda liked her mom Franzi living with her so that she could do all the housework, cook, and take care of Zuzana. If Zuzana didn’t emigrate, she probably would have killed her mother. There was no way they could live together. I don’t know how Zuzana’s husband and in-laws didn’t see the true Magda. How could they miss the insults she gave Adam and Zuzana. The racism was also hard to ignore.…

There are other interesting points, but what made me smile again was this:

Definitely recommend giving the book a try. I’m in the minority with my thoughts. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

That sounds like a bit of masochism. Why would she want to read more of my books? She hated it. Or did she just hate the characters?

One thing it made me want to do is to write a book about a really evil fictitious character and observe the reaction.

Magda in my book wasn’t evil, she was damaged by the war time experiences, and the need to fight in life. There is a lot to admire about Magda as well as her negative side.

“Everything is possible if you try.”

My other negative review on Goodreads had 1 star, No review.

I am a curious woman, and I wrote to the reviewer on Goodreads.

I said: You obviously hated the book. But I would like to know what you disliked so much. One learns from criticism.
But you just gave it 1 star and didn’t write a review?

The reply was that she forgot to post the review on Goodreads. the review was originally for Net galley.

I forgot about: “be careful what you wish for”.

Now I have that bad 1-star review. You can read it lower down. I am sure she has some good points. But one was about too many sexual references. Zuzana is a woman with a healthy enthusiastic attitude to sex. She is lucky to have a husband who is similar.

I think good sex makes people happy, especially if it is with somebody they love. I am not going to apologise for that opinion. 

These are the other reviews:WHY DIDN’T THEY LEAVE?

 BLURBS BY THREE AUTHORS WHO KINDLY AGREED TO DO IT

 With meticulous detail, heart wrenching scenes like “ . . . marching us from Auschwitz to Loslau,” sear onto the page.

 From police informers to the “Velvet Revolution,” Hnizdo offers answers through her characters’ actions as to why some

chose to remain in their homeland and others fled. A story filled with history and heartache . . . survival and hope.”

— Julie Maloney, author

“Zuzana is haunted by the choices that her family made during the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and later during the Communist regime. Her discoveries make for a compelling story of loyalty, love, and courage.”

Jacqueline Sheehan author

Eva Hnizdo has turned her own story into a gripping work of fiction that follows a secular Czech Jewish family’s fortunes during World War Two through communism to a multi-cultural life in Britain. Her book says much about prejudice and tolerance, survivors’ guilt and the emotional challenges of motherhood, all through the voice of her extrovert and sexy heroine. 

Brigid Grauman author

Recently I ate my book , well, I shared it with friends at my birthday party.

Before he rest of the reviews, this is my birthday cake in the form of my book, Isn’t the baker ( not her profession) amazing? She even managed to add a ski boot and a stetoscope.Yep, sums up my life, working as a doctor, skiing, writing, reading.

AMAZON REVIEWS OF MY BOOK UK

Kevin

VINE VOICE

5.0 out of 5 stars  A powerful read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 November 2023

Spanning four decades and several lives, this is a haunting and unequivocally honest story chronicling the trials and tribulations of one extraordinary Czech/Jewish family, before, during, and long after, The Holocaust.
The saga begins in Nazi-occupied Prague in 1940. Magda Stein, a bright but headstrong pupil with a talent for manipulation, is told that she can no longer attend school for no other reason than being born a Jew. And so, with the benefit of historical hindsight, we read on looking through our fingers and shuddering as each worrying development unfolds. Magda’s family, like so many other Jewish families in WWII, find themselves dispossessed of their worldly goods; their prosperity precipitously turned into austerity. Uncertainty and fear spread throughout the Jewish community; even a ’Promised Land’ and a ‘spa for Jews’, underwritten by the Swiss Red Cross, turned out to be a brutal ghetto from which there was little chance of escape.

Author Eva Hnizdo writes with great authority and candour about the abhorrent events that shatter the comfortable lives of one close-knit Jewish family. Herein there are stories of astonishing bravery, of racism, antisemitism and unending guilt.
In peacetime, the fractious relationship between Magda and Zuzana – her spirited daughter (a chip off the old block) – is something to behold. The mother is perhaps resentful of the luxuries and freedoms afforded to her daughter when such privileges were stolen from her at the same age.

Although the story is mostly fictional, it felt so real – a commentary rich with human interest and mindful of the strong ties that bind people together.
And perhaps, love – not the cloying sentimental kind, but the raw defiant version – is the real winner here.

I thoroughly enjoyed this vivid multigenerational story, and Zuzana’s letter to her dead mother would make even a statue cry.
A great read!

Peter Fink

5.0 out of 5 stars  Why didn’t they leave? or Why did they stay?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2021

In the many books dealing with the dramatic canvas of twentieth-century European history, the Eva Hnizdo book: Why didn’t they leave? stands out.
By not following the format of other personal recollections of the horrors and inhumanity of the Holocaust, her perceptive writing focuses on a more universal question of how to capture the complexity of individual lives and how we become who we are by our decisions and actions. The book’s alternative title could have easily have been: Why did they stay?
What made this book stand out for me is how the writer seamlessly interweaves the enormity of the Holocaust and communism with the human desire of all the protagonists to be known and heard, in owning their unique story as a mother, daughter …. or being Jewish or Czech … The multi-layered narratives of Magda and her mother become an almost surgical step by step capturing of a shared burden of multigenerational trauma of encountering the values of another person formed in another time and of the ultimate redemption of allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story and all the good and bad decisions of others within it.

Zenka W.

5.0 out of 5 stars  Why Didn’t They Leave? novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2022

V

An emotional deeply human saga of a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia during the war years of Holocaust. Second section take place after the emigration of the daughter Zuzana in the early 1970’s to Great Britain, after the Russian invasion and occupation. Events based on very real lives and in many ways similar to my own life’s story as I emigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1969. It’s expertly written by a Hertfordshire retired Czech doctor Eva Hnizdo. Once you start reading the book you cannot put it down. The characters appear so real you could be watching them in a film. I recommend this book 100%.

Ellie S

5.0 out of 5 stars  A fascinating story of one Jewish family

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 October 2021

When you start reading this book you’ll find it difficult to take the smallest break.
Antisemitism, racism, hatred and the blind obedience of WW2 described so well. You will build a relationship with characters, experiencing the life they lived. Perhaps, your neighbour or a friend has a similar story to tell. A story for you but a life once lived. You might think, it’s history. Indeed, I agree. The history humans should never repeat or experience ever again. And therefore, let’s not forget. Enjoy the book

Crimefictionfan

5.0 out of 5 stars  If you ask too many questions, you get too many answers …

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2022

Thinly disguised as fiction this book has its roots in family history and autobiography. Reading it was an emotional rollercoaster, at times heart-breaking, and other times heart-warming. It traces a large Jewish Czech family from the rise of Nazism to the beginning of this century. The diaspora caused first by the Nazis and later by the Soviet regime is all-too authentic and a harrowing reminder of Ukraine today.
The author writes with honesty and integrity, in bold and brave brush strokes, flinching from nothing. An important memoir of times we must never forget.

Janaki Putcha

5.0 out of 5 stars  A must read book about love, loss and survival

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 January 2022

I have read this book with enormous interest, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it. This book is about love, loss and survival, of mothers and daughters and of humanity in all its colours. Although this book is not about the Holocaust, the Second World War, the Holocaust and the events thereafter are integral to this story. They hold the key to understanding Magda, and the relationship she had with her daughter. Magda presented me with a conundrum and stayed on my mind for several days after I finished reading this book. It was interesting to see how many of her formative experiences (for example, the teasing about her appearance as a young child, to the terrifying time in Theresienstadt , the loss she suffered) translated into her character as an adult right through her life.
I congratulate the author, for a very illuminating and thought provoking book. I also found the understated and matter-of-fact way of storytelling very refreshing.

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E M Price

5.0 out of 5 stars  A heart rending tale of the suffering of the Jewish people.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 November 2021

This is a gripping account of the suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis and their sympathisers. It personalises their torment and really brings home the horror of it all.
The story continues through several generations, detailing the legacy of this tragedy.
Read this to be moved afresh by this awful saga which must never be forgotten.

Amazon From the United States

Some Chick

4.0 out of 5 stars  An important story for today

Reviewed in the United States on 15 October 2021

Verified Purchase

Why didn’t they leave by Eva Hnizdo tells the story of a Czech family from the point of view of Magda and her daughter Zuzana, moving between the two women and covering most of their lives.

Magda in the 1930’s is a wilful somewhat spoiled child living in a beautiful home in Prague. Her mother Franzi is a cultured woman and grandmother Olga is a steel-willed Matriarch used to getting her way.

They’re wealthy and the family is educated, close, and enjoys a privileged lifestyle. They’re Jewish but agnostic and celebrate Christmas with roast pork and have no discernible religious beliefs.

There are rumblings of trouble in Europe but family matriarch Olga dismisses it and even though the opportunity to leave and emigrate to the United States comes their way—enough so that much of the family could go—only a few go against grandmother Olga’s command and leave.

Though the family barely considers themselves Jewish, in fact some are married to Christians and even a German, it’s enough Jewishness for the Nazi’s. They’re sent to camps, most of the men die, in fact most of the family dies. (I heard the author speak in an interview with the BBC about this book and her family history upon which this story is based. She made an intriguing statement that how we see ourselves is important, but how others see us too is also important. That really stayed with me.)

Those that survive in this story are changed forever. Magda at 18 returns from a camp determined to put it behind her, she finishes school quickly and becomes a pharmacist. She trusts no one and is damaged by what she endured. Her mother Franzi too survives but decides the worst in life is behind her and focuses on the good. Olga too managed to survive but with the knowledge that her family died because of her demands.

The Nazis confiscated much of their wealth, but some things were saved by non-Jewish friends.

Magda marries and has a daughter Zuzana. Zuzana doesn’t even know her family is Jewish because Magda like many survivors of the Holocaust decides the safest way to ensure future survival is to leave every last hint of their Jewishness behind them, so she hides everything from her daughter.

Zuzana knows only that her mother is demanding and impossible. Prague and Czechoslovakia are then invaded by Russia and becomes communist. So the surviving family goes from Nazis to Communism.

Zuzana slowly learns her family’s truth though her mother shares nothing. When grandmother Franzi dies, Magda has the funeral behind Zuzana’s back.

Magda manages to secure state permission for a trip to Paris and Zuzana takes her first opportunity to escape to London and never return. Determined not to make the same mistakes as her family.

Zuzana is pragmatic and open to new cultures and races, surprisingly unlike her mother Magda who is still living in survival mode. Zuzana escapes communism to the west. She marries a black man whose family emigrated from Grenada. Slowly over the years Zuzana pieces together her family story. It’s a fascinating tale and an education for many Americans whose own families escaped many of the horrors of the Second World War—and the ensuing political problems of the decades following even to now.

This book is important and worth your time and effort. The large cast of characters at the beginning gives the story a slow start but the payoff is huge. It’s amazing how much of this history is repeating itself even today.

Read more

Reviews from Amazon USA

Nancy Burke

5.0 out of 5 stars  Why Didn’t They Leave? Read it!

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2021

I have a strong sense of the importance of refugee stories, so much so that I wrote a book about an escape from Soviet occupied lands during World War II of a young girl and her single mother (non-fiction), and a story of escape by a family under the Pinochet regime in Chile in 1973 (YA fiction).
So when Eva Hnizdo’s book, Why Didn’t They Leave, was released in September, I was eager to read it. Hers is an up close and personal story of a mother, Magda, and a daughter, Zuzana, both of whom survived the battlefield that was Czechoslovakia between Nazism and communism during the years between 1938 and 1989, and the many relatives of theirs who did not.
Why Didn’t They Leave asks a question universal among survivors of the Holocaust and the Soviet/Communist oppressive regimes that followed WWII in eastern and northern Europe. And, in her telling of a truly personal family history, Eva answers in heart rending, vivid, emotional truth, leaving out nothing of the pain of each family member whether they survived to emigrate or perished in the camps.
Told with a humor characteristic of Eva’s shorter and earlier work, and in her straightforward, no-nonsense prose, these stories are as much about Zuzana’s discovery of her family’s past hidden from her in her youth in Prague (when she was not even told she was Jewish), as it is about the family heroes and heroines she came to know as she uncovered their detailed stories of bravery, survival, obedience and defiance.
Central to this book, and what gives it it’s mesmerizing tension, is the conflicted relationship between Magda, the mother who survived Theresienstadt, and her daughter Zuzana, who took a lifetime to understand the impact such an imprisonment left on a mother who so wanted to protect her daughter from pain that she didn’t even tell her her grandmother died until after her funeral.
Ultimately a story of forgiveness, not of the Nazi’s or the Communist regime, but of the family matriarch who advised her children against emigration – “there has always been anti-Semitism, it will go away” this is a personal story and a historical record that is a not-to-be-put-down-until-finished work of beauty and truth. I loved it and so will you.
NB.

Susan H.

5.0 out of 5 stars  Unites you with history and the human spirit.

Reviewed in the United States on Octo

This is a powerful story of the family complexities of emigration in face of one of the most evil times in human history. The ancestral strings and the form of family trees that Eva Hnizdo took to write of the Jewish family experience throughout Hitler’s reign of terror was something I appreciated very much.
Mother-daughter and family matriarchy plot lines pulled me into each character’s life as they lived it and found me “putting myself in their shoes” whether standing huddled on the transport platform or reffing a mother-daughter banter and communication barrier.
The historical sequences that led up to Hitler’s Final Solution played all the while accurately in the background, while the characters captured your heart in their uprooted lives. I bought this book because of it’s title: Why Didn’t They Leave? That question was very well answered by the author, and it’s not a simple one. Kudos to Eva Hnizdo.

RSK

5.0 out of 5 stars  Solidly and beautifully written

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2021

This read was painful and healing at the same time, having me relive some of my family’s challenges in Russia. The author’s descriptions are striking and at times tear at the heart. It is hard to take a break from reading, being drawn into the family dynamics through the author’s writing skill. It also is published at a time in this world when hatred and racism are blatantly rearing their ugly heads. A reminder of what was, and what could again be.

Anthony Machacek

5.0 out of 5 stars  Beautiful book

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2021

Eva Hnizdo accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skilfully written story
This book is just purely amazing, start to finish. From the plot to the way the author lets you emphasize the characters, this novel is absolutely wonderful.
This is an excellent book that everyone should/must-read. Many people forget that some of their ancestors were once refugees too!

Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars  Answers to important questions

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021

This is a beautifully written book, recommended for anyone interested in understanding human adaptation and survival in the face of terrible situations. Raised in the shadow of the Holocaust, Hnizdo’s heroine goes searching for her identity and uncovers a story of bravery and tolerance.

Gwendolyn Plano

5.0 out of 5 stars  Historical novel at its best

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2022

This was a complicated read. Emotionally draining, the story follows a family through terrors most will never know. Readers glimpse the horror of war via a family torn apart by unimaginable racism and inhumanity. I recommend the read but be prepared. You will see what you wished you hadn’t, hear what you can’t unhear, and feel pain so deep you’ll cry in shame. History cannot and must not repeat itself. Bravo to the writer.

Kent A Cook

5.0 out of 5 stars  This story personalizes the holocaust experience and the generational effect over time.

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2022

An enlightening look at the profound effects over time on a family’s experience through extraordinary times and how those times influenced life to come. Life is always clear in the rear-view mirror; this story presents in real time which allows the reader to walk in the “now” of history through the lives presented in the book. It is easy to armchair quarterback when we know the outcome, the way this is written gives the reader a taste of the multifaceted considerations and decisions people were faced with. An enjoyable and interesting perspective and read.

Patrick Gou

5.0 out of 5 stars  A Riveting Family Saga Set Against the Backdrop of War

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2021

This review is written by Patricia Black-Gould.
Zuzana learned she was Jewish when, as a teenager, the family went to a synagogue that contained a list of 78,000 Czech Jews killed during World War II. Her family members began looking for names of relatives. And that was when it was revealed to her. She knew her grandfather and other relatives died in the war but didn’t know what happened. Her family never spoke about the Jews. And growing up in Communist Czechoslovakia, the Holocaust wasn’t mentioned in textbooks.
But Zuzana learns more about her family history, which makes Eva Hnizdo’s book Why Didn’t They Leave? such a riveting story. The author brings readers back in time to the 1939 Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. She takes us through the lives of this family: those who remained within the country and those who left. We follow their stories, especially Magda, Zuzana’s mother, who survived a concentration camp.
The story continues, and we witness the strained relationship between Magda and her daughter until finally Zuzana flees Czechoslovakia and tries to discover who she is. But that’s not that easy, as she states, “When I was in London, I felt Czech; when I was in Prague, I felt British. I felt Jewish when I was with Non-Jews, but not much with other Jewish people.” So who is she? Zuzana learns more about herself as she learns about her family, both from the past and those surrounding her.

ALLTHAT

4.0 out of 5 stars  Lots of history

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2021

This book kept my attention with the historical details. Initially, overwhelmed viewing the time line and family lineage but the focused writing takes you on a historical tour placing characters in challenging family conflicts while in the depths of communist Czechoslovakia and the Holocaust. Sequels seem evident to really expound into the experiences of the surviving Holocaust victims as well as family dynamics the characters.

Jennifer

3.0 out of 5 stars  OK

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2021

I have so many mixed feelings about this book and give it 2.5 stars. From the description I thought I would love it, but it was the opposite. If it wasn’t for the last part of the book, I would have given it 2 stars. There were so many characters to keep track of and at times it got confusing. I HATED the characters, mainly Magda. Magda was awful. She was a terrible mother. I hated the way she talked to her daughter. Magda liked her mom Franzi living with her so that she could do all the housework, cook and take care of Zuzana. If Zuzana didn’t emigrate, she probably would have killed her mother. There was no way they could live together. I don’t know how Zuzana’s husband and in-laws didn’t see the true Magda. How could they miss the insults she gave Adam and Zuzana. The racism was also hard to ignore. It felt like what the family went through during the war was glossed over and was the shortest part of the book. The Stein family was pretty lucky, since they were so wealthy. They didn’t seem to suffer as much as some families after the war. They also had the luxury of constantly traveling. For me, the book was more about the terrible family relationships than WWII and what happened to Czechoslovakia after the War. The best part of the book was when Zuzana visits her relatives in the United States.

Definitely recommend giving the book a try. I’m in the minority with my thoughts. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from The Book Guild, through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

AMAZON REVIEW FRANCE

Balajk

5,0 sur 5 étoiles  Why didn’t they leave?

Commenté en France le 7 février 2022

This very readable story of a Jewish family from Czechoslovakia uses the personal story of a young girl Zuzana to tell the history of the Jews from the Second World War, which brought disaster to her family, through life in communist Czechoslovakia to her decision to emigrate, i.e. to live freely in England and at the same time to escape the influence of her mother.
Eva Hnizdo obviously draws on her family history, but also adds to the reality in a way that creates a plastic, appealing story. Her focus is not just on the Holocaust and post-war totalitarianism, but on everyday life, family relationships, and the exploration of Jewish identity. Once the protagonist, Susan, is in England, other weighty themes enter the book, such as the integration of immigrants into local society and the like, issues of national ethnicity and multiculturalism.

AMAZON REVIEW FROM CANADA

DGKaye

5.0 out of 5 stars  A Fascinating Family Saga/Historical Fiction/Memoir

Reviewed in Canada on May 20, 2022

Magda is 13, it’s 1940 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Germans are taking over the country and Magda and her brother Oskar have already been booted from school, while their mother is sewing yellow Stars of David on their clothing. At first Magda thinks the stars look cool, then quickly realizes after getting pushed and shoved on the street, the star is a calling card for attention. Magda’s family was privileged and Magda’s mother Franzi and her husband Bruno did well with buying off SS agents by giving them many family possessions to avoid deportation to Theresienstadt, but by 1942 her family was finally deported. Some survived, some didn’t. When liberation finally came, Magda and her mother lived through the brutal and lean times and were lucky to be given back their home in Czechoslovakia.

Magda at 18 reinserts herself back into the school system and studies hard to graduate high school after missing four years of school and succeeds. She marries Mirek after she graduates and they live with her mother Franzi. Franzi mourns the loss of her husband, her son and all others while Magda wants to go on, avoiding the memories and deaths. By 1948 communism was taking over the Czechoslovakia and government was taking over private businesses, those who didn’t comply were sent to jails. It was like war was back but within their own country. Magda and Mirek were urged to leave in the late 40s, but Magda didn’t want to leave her mother. By 1952 they were stuck there. Anyone caught trying to leave the country was jailed.

In 1953 Magda gave birth to daughter Zuzana and was happy to let her mother Franzi do everything and look after her daughter while she kept occupied, entrenched in her job. By this time Mirek was already cheating on moody Magda. Magda decided she didn’t want her daughter to be Jewish so she convinced her unwilling husband to have Zuzana baptized to protect her from being a persecuted Jew, as anti-semitism was running rampant even after the war, especially while Czechoslovakia was under communism. When Zuzana was age 9, Mirek left Magda. He was tired of her whining and lack of interest in cultural things he liked to do. And he wasn’t happy about not giving their daughter a religion to practice, as Magda only wanted the baptism to protect her child from future incidence of anti-semitism, without teaching her about any religion.

In the mid 60s, Magda went to visit Bavaria. She was stunned at all the beautiful goods for sale in stores – something they didn’t have in the Czechoslovakia. Her pent-up anger at Germans had her stealing from stores because she felt entitled after the Germans seemed to have stolen much more from her. Her passive- aggressive anger lingered.

By 1964, Zuzana was a young teenager who protested all her mother’s good intentions for her. Magda tries to send Zuzana for dance lessons, but Zuzana doesn’t like it, doesn’t like girlie things or dresses. Magda wants to give her daughter everything she didn’t have, but Zuzana is rebellious. Zuzana prefers wearing pants and reading books to dresses and parties. Magda is often bitter at her daughter’s reactions to all her plans for her, as though Magda wanted to live what she missed out on vicariously through her daughter. Magda often mumbles to herself that her daughter doesn’t know how lucky she is to have access to clothes, classes and adventures as Magda internally remembers her time imprisoned during the Holocaust. But Magda stays firm in her decision not to tell Zuzana about her imprisonment or how so many family members actually died in the Holocaust. She never even told Zuzana they were really Jewish.

Part two of the book is Zuzana’s story in the year beginning back in 1966, till the early 2000s. Now married Zuzana with a 13 year old son, Adam, tells her husband Harry that she changed schools when she was a teenager where she could learn more languages, adding that her mother got her in through black market connections, which she reiterates was really such a thing.

In 1967 Zuzana’s Uncle Otto and his wife came back to Czechoslovakia to visit his remaining family and he went to the synagogue with Zuzana, her mother and grandmother Olga. This was the first time Zuzana realized that it was not only the communist anti-fascists who were killed in the war, but innocent people, including her own family. Until then, Zuzana had been sheltered from knowing about war and the fact that she was an actual Jew. As an avid book reader, Zuzana began to read ‘different’ books that were starting to appear on the shelves – stories about the Holocaust.

As a late teen, Zuzana left the country, organized by her rich Uncle Otto and moved to England where she went to university and lived out her dreams of freedom, education, meeting people from different races and falling in love with her to be black husband Harry who became a pharmacist.

Zuzana felt she didn’t love her mother because Magda nagged her all the time and never gave her daughter a compliment, almost trying so hard to force her daughter to do the things Magda never had the chance to do. The tension remained between mother and daughter throughout the story until Magda’s ultimate death, when Zuzana learned from Uncle Otto what really happened to their family during the war, and this opened up a world of curiosity for Zuzana about her real heritage inspiring her desire to travel to America to meet the sparse family who survived the war and ultimately, moved to America. Then Zuzana gets the rude awakening about how her mother survived and the PTSD effect it left on Magda that made her become the way she was. She meets up with aunts, uncles and cousins who were survivors and descendants of survivors, and her new discoveries give her a new sense of why her mother acted the way she did, discovering her mum not wanting to talk of what she lived was a shield for herself and the PTSD she suffered through the rest of her life from what she lived through. Zuz learns that she shouldn’t have judged her mother and once Magda dies, Zuz’s grief becomes overwhelming. As Zuzana begins to have regrets in this new appreciation for her mother, we begin to learn the true effects the war had on this one family.

This is a story about a family caught up in the brink of war, during the war, and their lives in the aftermath. It deals with racism, anti-semitism, communism, humanitarianism and inhumanity. Fascinating on many levels with the intricately woven characters and going deep learning how and why these people were shaped. Yes, it takes place during the Holocaust, but it’s about people’s individual lives, living through hell, and how they become after. This is the story of one once large family torn by war, how they survived, why some left in time, and why some chose to stay behind.

So if you only read these reviews snd not the book, isn’t it time to read it?ONLY IF YOU WANT TO.

The term TMI (too much information) is usually used for sexual or other intimate information shared inappropriately.

But recently I realised there is, for me, another meaning.

Recent political situation is worrying me. There are many pressing issues, including the possibility of war, conflicts in Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, conspiracy theories, rising antisemitism, religious influence, abortion debates, the rise of populism, anti-democratic politicians, and censorship.

So, I am following many sources, and the more I do, the more I worry.

Take Facebook and other platforms. The posts are often interesting, but it all takes time.

Emails- all those lists I am subscribed to.

It is not so much the content as the amount.

It changed the way I use of my time.

I used to read more books and write, even though I was a full-time medical doctor. Now I am retired, but don’t seem to have time for anything.

Where does it go?

WhatsApp, Facebook, The New York times, The Guardian, emails, then sending videos, chatting on zoom, attending zoom workshops…

I didn’t get access to this technology till I was older, about 55.It was fascinating, all those possibilities.

Now I am 70, and it has taken over my life.

I stopped writing, read much less, and I worry.

I am Jewish, although I only found out age 14, and I have no religion.

I also do not feel my Jewish identity was more important than my Czech identity, or British identity- I have been living in England since 1987. These are three of the many boxes I belong to.

But after researching and writing my novel and connecting with my relatives, I became worried.

I hear the voice of my mother telling me off for telling my children, who are half Jewish about it.,” It is not good for people to know, there is always antisemitism.”

And now, I am reading a lot about the rise of antisemitism, and of course, in the virtual world, the information follows the pattern of your previous reading.

I can’t stop worrying about the wars, Putin, and I’ve been reading a lot about the Stalin era and the Holocaust. Last year, as far as books go, I lived in 1933-1953. Not a good part of the twentieth century.

The lucky part of my personality has always been not worrying about things I couldn’t change.

In life, relationships, work. If I couldn’t change it, or the only action was not acceptable, I stopped worrying about it.

I stopped trying to change traits I didn’t like in my friends and partners. There was an option to leave, and sometimes, I took it. The other option, when those relationships were worth it, was accepting those traits as something I couldn’t change, so I stopped worrying about it.

So now, feeling overwhelmed by the world I cannot change. I must stop worrying about it. If there was a situation when I felt my action would be useful, then I’d have to think again.

That is not the case.

So, I put a limit on my screen time; I am unsubscribing from all those lists. I might even pretend the new technology doesn’t exist.

But no, I don’t want to go back to the typewriter. My old one is now a decoration on my wall.

But I typed and printed my mantra:

DON’T WORRY ABOUT THINGS YOU CANNOT CHANGE.

 And another one:

STOP LOOKING AT THOSE SCREENS ALL THE TIME, IF YOU HAVE TO READ SOMETHING, USE PAPER BOOKS.

Well, I might still read my kindle…But it’s called Paperwhite, so that doesn’t count.

And if the WW3 happens, I will know about it.

Like Scarlet O’Hara, “I won’t think about that today — I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

I WILL HAVE MORE TIME, SO I WILL READ AND WRITE MORE BOOKS